Growing the perfect Christmas tree takes close to ten years, but in March 2012 just four days of extreme heat pummeled much of Vermont and New Hampshire’s Christmas tree crop.

“It gave us an eye opener, you know, something we hadn’t anticipated,” says Sandy Wilmot, a Forest Health Specialist with Vermont’s Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation.

Bob White’s Christmas trees withstood the heat then, but as he surveys his Essex farm this year he’s discovered a new problem.

The culprit? Summer flash floods. (snip)

“We’ve already seen some dramatic changes in the last fifty years,” she says.

In those fifty years, winter temperatures spiked some four point five degrees. Summer temperatures, two degrees. Additional warming will change the make up of our forests.

Bummer, trees can’t withstand tiny temperature changes. I wonder how any trees survived during all the previous warm and cool periods? It’s not like they’ve evolved over millions of years. But, hey, you know, Bad Weather only started happening in 1988 or something. Funny how North Carolina is seeing a top rate Christmas tree crop this year. Oh, wait, sorry, Christmas trees are doomed in the future. My Bad!

Vivienne Westwood is no stranger to championing environmental causes. In fact, it could be said that Dame Viv’s passionate political campaigns often steal the limelight away from her fashion collections.

So, it makes perfect sense that Vivienne should want to try and revolutionise our Christmas habits, especially when it comes to things like wasting paper and buying too many throwaway products, which, let’s face it, we’re probably all guilty of.

In an endeavour to make us all a little bit greener, and to think of our envirnonent, Vivienne has collaborated with cosmetics company Lush to create a scarf, or knot wrap, that also doubles as gift wrap. (WT- misspellings are the stories, not mine. Not that I’m perfect)

The scarfs include the notion of “climate revolution”

The knot-wraps are available in camel or light pink and are printed with two Climate Revolution images designed by Ms Westwood. The black-eyed unsmiling face – the Face of War – is the designer’s symbol for the fight against climate change and environmental degradation.